The present invention relates in general to gas generators and in particular to a new and useful gas generator particularly for safety belt tightening equipment in a vehicle.
Such gas generators have an inner housing which is preassembled with a propellant charge and primer and inserted, as an independent unit, in a consumer side outer jacket. These units are being used in relatively small sizes for instance in motor vehicle construction as propellant gas generators for belt tighteners or as ignition gas generators for the solid propellant charge of an inflatable safety cusion. As such they must satisfy stringent safety requirements despite their low cost, weight saving construction. A special problem in this respect, in known gas generators of this kind is the attachment of the relatively thin walled propellant vessel on the ignition carrier. It must be attached with the propellant charge already filled in and must withstand the high hot gas internal pressure when in use. If for this attachment of the propellant vessel on the ignition carrier side a union is provided which is easy to produce by cold shaping in the manner of a sheet metal seam, it requires an additional reinforcement to obtain sufficient mechanical strength, for instance an additional welded or bonded seam made by the electron beam method for protection against the propellant charge contained in the vessel. This, however, involves, for such gas generators, a considerable extra expense for its production.